The Gate
by knownbeforetime
Summary: Please RR! I only got 1 for ch. 7 (I edited some stuff and reworked a few things. It is still not perfect. New chapter.) A mysterious electrical storm sends Rachel & Tobias into (I don't know) something.
1. Default Chapter Title

**The Gate: Chapter 1**  
  
**By morpher**  
  
A/N: I am reposting it because I am going to write a sequel, and I don't want people to go through hell looking for it. Yes, I changed my name to morpher.  It is set back in the old days when they had houses. (Pre-49ish.)  Also, any formatting errors are the fault of the computers used.  I really did try my best….  
  


**Third person**  
  
Tobias flew through the already open window. Rachel and him were going to fly. They did this all the time. Mostly on sunny days, where there is a lot of thermals. Sometimes they flew in cold weather just to be flying. This was one of those days.  
  
Nothing was planned. You know just to get out of the house (or tree, and away from too many questions from an annoying alien.) It was really cloudy today, which meant power flying. So what? They needed the fresh air. They took off, heading south. There were a few things out there, a convenience store, a few churches, but that was about it.  
  
Rachel was sort of leading the way. She had a rough day yesterday, to many people. She was so popular. Every girl envied her and every boy wanted to date her (or her body). Well, maybe she envied someone to. Angela. She was not popular. In fact, everybody hated her. She was big on ragged clothes, big mouths, and threats. Everybody just left her alone. She wished they would leave her alone. She wanted to tell somebody this. Then her pride would get in the way. She couldn't even tell Tobias this!  
  
However, all he knew was that some day a big bird would swoop down and have him for lunch, or a snack. He did not want to say anything. She would give him the whole be a human routine. Today, they were flying for the sake of flying. They were warned against morphing for pleasure, but they didn't care if they were caught. It just might end all their problems.  
  
They turned a little east, and Tobias saw his uncle's house. There was an ambulance there. He turned around. He could remember many times he had wished his uncle was dead, but his wishes never came true. He would pass out in unexpected places. He would get him in trouble. Especially, the time he took some bread and pop from the store because he did not have any money. He blamed Tobias on it. He was four at the time, that's when he started to see his uncle for who he really was. Tobias never forgave his uncle for that. He spent three days in the "boy's home" for that.  
  
He circled around and landed on a tree in the yard.  
  
Tobias, what are you doing? She asked  
  
My uncle lives here.  
  
He probably had too much to drink.  
  
Yeah.  
  
Come on. Let's go.  
  
He was getting ready to take off when they rolled out a body bag. His wish had come true.  
  
"Does this guy have any family? They're going to want to know," a policeman said  
  
"A rather scattered family. He has a sister on the other coast, another sister that was in an accident about fifteen years ago and a nephew that disappeared a year ago. Strange thing though his nephew was in his custody."  
  
"Really." The paramedic sounded more interested. "You think he did something with the kid?"  
  
"It is an intriguing thought."  
  
"Suicide note's a mystery to. It was to his nephew. 'I'm sorry; I didn't know what you were.' Man, he must have been out of it at the time, too. His report said he was an alcoholic"  
  
"And he recovered after the kid disappeared. Almost like the snap of a finger."  
  
"This will make an interesting report."  
  
Wow. Not in a million years would I ha-  
  
Tobias?  
  
Yeah?   
  
I do not want to hear this.   
  
Okay.   
  
Tobias was shocked. His uncle had killed himself. He must have found something out about him. _It was my fault_, he thought. He never felt so guilty. This whole war had killed too many people. They decided to go back home. It was too cloudy to get any fun out of flying. It was always that way when you find out someone's problems are bigger than yours. He gazed upward and saw a strange lightning bolt. His first thought was that it was raining. However, the clouds were slacking off, and the sun was shining. Then he thought it could not have been a lightning bolt. It was staying there. It had a sort of inviting light to it. It was pale yellow with a slight touch of pink. He flapped his wings to gain altitude, but the higher he went the higher it would go. Maybe it was a mirage, or in space. It quickly turned into a race. He was flying with ease and was chasing it.  
  
Rachel did not see it this way. It was something dangerous. She wanted to shake off the feeling of playfulness.  
  
Tobias, what are you doing? She yelled at him.  
  
Don't you see it? He whispered back.  
  
Tobias, you're going to get hurt. Come back. She screamed. Rachel flew as fast as she could to get to him. She did not know what had gotten into her boyfriend. He was going to get killed. She desperately flew up to him. When she reached that altitude something had happened. She felt like she was flying, but she wasn't. It was like she was being carried. She did not know what she was so concerned about two seconds ago. The lightning bolt was so beautiful. She saw something familiar in there, a whole new life.  
  
Don't you see it? He said with wonder in his voice  
  
Yes. Let's check it out. She said with a two-year-cold's imagination  
  
Come on! He said. They felt almost like dolphins, really giddy, and happy. It was a race to get to that lightning bolt first.  
  
I beat you! He yelled.  
  
Oh, that wasn't fair! She groaned. You had a head start. It wasn't a lightning bolt anymore. It was a huge toy to them. There was a little heat coming from it, a welcoming heat, like a furnace in the wintertime.  
  
I wonder what's inside it? Tobias said. Then Rachel zoomed right into it.  
  
Oh! I'm going to get you! He yelled and headed straight for the "lightning bolt"  
  
** Tobias**  
  
"Toby! You're going to be late for school! Hurry up!" Loren yelled. That was my mother.  
  
"Stop calling me that!" I yelled. I wanted everybody to call me Tobias. I never liked Toby. It was always Tobias, but nobody listened. I stumbled out of bed and looked for my uniform. I hoped Lana had washed it. I sighed with relief to find my uniform laid out for me. My parents were big on the philosophy that the money would not always be there. So they had chores and stuff for me to do around the house, including washing my own clothes. I looked at my uniform. Something was wrong with it. I didn't know what I was looking at. I saw a tie, a shirt, a jacket and pants. They were all cleaned and pressed with perfect creases. I took a second look, about to yell for Lana, and decided that it was perfect. I sighed and went to the bathroom to take a shower and change.  
  
I walked back to look at the room I had woken up in. It. Was. Huge! In one corner was a queen size bed. I had a closet for a wall. I had a computer and the latest equipment dad had mixed up for me at work. I looked at all this, touched it, and smelled it. What was this? It was a strange feeling. I had lived this life for fifteen years, yet I had never lived a day of it.  
  
I put on my clothes, with the exception of the tie; I didn't know how to tie it: and went downstairs feeling strangely happy. I went about my normal routine. It was a nightmare I had. I breathed a little easier.  
  
"How did you sleep, Toby."  
"My name is Tobias, Mom." I looked around at the dining room. I still had that feeling that I had never lived here before.  
  
She took a look at me and said, "Are you still having trouble with that tie?"  
  
She came over and tied it for me. It seemed like this never happened but my mother had tied my ties for ten years now. (I still couldn't figure them out.) The dining room was not really big. It had a single, round table. Lana came in and served the food. It was bacon and eggs. How extravagant.  As I ate I forgot all about that nightmare. It was good to, because it felt like I had dreamed about a year's worth of events. One good thing about it though, there was a girl, a very beautiful girl.  
  
Mr. Gates was coming over. I didn't like that guy. He would try and have fun with me like I'm some two-year old. But I knew he was only trying to get some sort of secret out of me. He would ask about some of the stuff on my computer and I would say a stapler. Dad did the same thing. Bill was a very peculiar guy. He wanted power. He wanted to take the company away from Dad.  
  
The name David came to mind when I thought of Bill. Wait a minute, who was David? Oh yeah, the nightmare. The memories of a brutal battle with a rat that wanted way too much power. Where was I coming up with this? A rat? Once again, I shook the feeling off that I was a stranger in this land. I felt someone screaming at the back of my head, "Where am I!"  
  
I quickly ate my breakfast, gathered my books, and headed for the car. The whole family piled in the back. Dad was going to work, and Mom was going to the doctor for a checkup on the new kid. We hoped to find out what it was today. Beside her growing stomach, Mom looked like Gwyneth Paltrow.  
  
I thought it was cool that she was going to have another kid, because then she would have some one to hang around with when Dad and I are out. It would be about ten years before the kid would be involved in anything, so Mom would have a wonderful time. Mom was perfect; she could do everything like cook, clean, make things. I still have the blanket she made me when I was a kid.  
  
Today was Wednesday. I went to school. It was a private school called "The Oldman Institute", or as some of the students call it, "The Dead Old Man's Institute." Which was almost true, all of the teachers were eighty-plus-years-old. It wasn't a rare thing for a teacher to have an oxygen machine. The car stopped in front of the school, and I stepped out. Looking through the door I had an urge to hug both my parents and say, "Have a nice day." Then I kissed my mom on the cheek.  
  
"Well, I hope you do too and don't forget that you're leaving early tonight, okay." Mom reminded me  
  
I smiled at my Dad. My dad was a great guy. He reminded me of Mulder on the X-files. He was smart, and funny. Then there were times when he would want to be left alone. He had a telescope, and he would spend hours up there. I learned, the hard way, that he did not want to be disturbed up there. Like Mulder, Dad had his secrets. You didn't ask him about high school. Mom was most secretive on that too. I always thought that maybe in high school Dad had gotten into trouble and it involved Mom somehow.  
  
I walked up the steps into a multitude of people. These people thought they were my friends. They were the trophy spawn of famous politicians and dignitaries. They were made to make their parents look good. They had to be perfect. These kids had to walk right or they would be punished. Grades had to be above 97% or else their parents would take away half of their 1,000 dollar allowance.  
  
It was funny when one kid literally had a heart attack because he had a 90% percent in trigonometry.  
  
I looked up at the front of the lobby and saw this familiar sign:  
  


**The Oldman Institute  
  
Serving the families of the gifted and talented for over 100 years.**  
  
After a few minutes of filing, and searching through the crowd, I found my best friend, Brian.  
Brian is a tall kid with red hair. He is three years older than me, and our dads both own big companies. His dad owns Escape Dish Cleaner. It's the biggest of its kind. We have a lot in common. We don't care what grade we get as long as we pass. It seemed to work.  
  
"Hey, Tobias." He said carefully  
  
"Hallelujah! Somebody knows my name!" We laughed and walked off towards our Biology class  
  
"You ready for 'The Biology of the Hang man.'" We laughed again and headed off towards our Biology class. We walked up three flights of stairs, and got there as soon as the bell rang. We rushed to the back of the class, and sat in the old, rickety desks. I always thought that I could rip one off and sell it. It would be an easy thousand.  
  
"POP QUIZ!!!" Mrs. Langman yelled in her old, guttural voice. The class groaned. I didn't say a word. She was a pretty strict teacher. She was the only teacher in this school that took off for spelling. I sailed through her classes though. I always had this knack for Science. By the time I was three dad had taught me tons of complex equations in all subjects. In fact, I went through five years of Science, and Math classes in six months. I was still in freshman English, and History though, because that wasn't Dad's thing.  
  
"The topic is Metamorphosis, Multiple choice." Then I nearly jerked out of my seat. That voice in my head was saying, "Rachel! Where was she?"  
  
"Hey, what's wrong man? You suddenly regress back two years."  
  
"Nothing. It was nothing." I struggled to remember what happened before I woke up this morning, but it was like I did not want to remember. I caught glimpses of the sky, a beautiful girl. Something about her, God she was beautiful! Eat your heart out Cindy Crawford! She was changing into something, feathers. Then the memory went away. This was my life I told myself. I went to school, had parents, friends, a normal life. But I felt that it was a fake life, a carbon copy life, that there was a whole other one out there. I saw a dangerous life, with fear, and battles to be fought, but not with hands but wings.  
  
"Tobias! Are you paying attention?!" Ugh! That voice I thought. Where was it coming from?  
  
"Yes, Mrs. Langman."  
  
She passed out the quizzes. It was a simple ten-question quiz. I sighed. This was so boring. I could have gone to Harvard with my science skills but Dad wouldn't let me. He said it would give the wrong idea to ordinary people. Sometimes Dad's totally crazy. He talks about a war a lot. I think maybe he was in the army or something. Like I said he never talks about his life much. He says it was an ordinary life and nothing unusual happened. Mom says the same thing. I was the first one to hand in my quiz.  
  
"What a surprise, Tobias." Mrs. Langman muttered. I don't think she likes the idea that I'm better at this than she is. I sat back down and waited the rest of the period out. I was feverishly going over my notes for the big American History Test. I never could get that right, but somehow I always seemed to pass. I think the teacher favored me.  
  
**Rachel**  
  
I woke up dazed. Immediately, I ran for the bathroom. I had the nastiest nausea. I felt like I had been hit with two-dozen dracon beams. I puked my guts out. Something I ate probably. Nothing I eat is fresh anymore. I went back to my room. I stood in a room where the wallpaper was falling off, and cobwebs ruled. There was a buzzing in my ears. That nasty alarm I thought. It was 6:30.  
  
I stepped into a pile of clothes that needed to be washed. Oh. No. I forgot to do the laundry again. I would have to go to school in another smelly shirt. I frantically searched the few drawers and the closet. Nothing. I groaned, another day at school when the kids would ridicule me. I went to the shower and thought why take a shower? My clothes would cover that up. I don't think anybody would care whether I was clean or dirty. I slipped on my gym shirt, for some reason it never smelled as bad as my other shirts. Then I put on the jeans I had on yesterday. I decided it didn't matter. Nobody would ask me out, nobody would be my friend, so why should I keep up appearances.  
  
I walked down the hallway to see if there was something in the fridge. It seemed like there never was, and there wasn't. I groaned again. I would ask for food and mom would say that there wasn't any money. Right next to it was the washing machine. It was never used. Nobody could ever remember to do the wash.  
  
Something caught my eye. I looked in between the two appliances and found a pack of cigarettes. Then I awoke from the nightmare. What is going on? I didn't smoke but yet I did. I remembered that day; my 18-year- old "boyfriend" got me hooked. Then I remembered what I did with him last night. That's why I forgot to do the wash. I cried. I wasn't a virgin anymore. I had tried to keep him off of me for some time but last night he slipped something in my soda. I awoke in the middle of it. I was powerless to stop him.  
  
Where was Tobias? If I were in this shape, what would he be like? I looked at the house. It was a trailer. I had never lived here but I had for nearly fourteen years. I had always been popular but now I was the biggest joke of the school. The only thing I was good at was Math and Science. I was in a gifted class, but that didn't mean I scored any popularity points.  
  
I couldn't go to school, not like this. Not in this state. I would have to sneak out. Just then I heard a car pull up. It was Jason, my "boyfriend". Jason reminded me of David. He had to be better than everyone else. _Who was David?_, I thought.  I got more upset. Jason was messing up my mind. I felt paranoid for some reason. I felt that I should be fighting a war. I could see a bear chewing up monstrous creatures with blades. That bear was me somehow. The name Hork came to mind. That was crazy. I didn't know anything like that. Jason had messed me up. I knew there were Orcs in the Lord of the Rings; maybe that's where I got it.  
  
Jason was going to take me to school this morning. Yeah, sure, the last time he took me we were an hour late. I didn't know what to do. Jason was blocking the door. I didn't want him to touch me.  
  
I went to the couch and sulked. My skill was gone. I was trembling, scared. I didn't belong here. My fearlessness was gone. Oh right. I was never fearless. I was always cowering from people. I wanted to punch him for what he did to me but I couldn't. I couldn't find the strength to do it.  
  
I looked around for a something, a weapon of some sort. On the coffee table was a newspaper. On the front was a picture of a family. It was the owner of Microsoft was with his family, Alan Fangor, Loren, and Tobias. I jumped when I saw him.  
  
The headline read.  
  
"Local man, Alan Fangor to run for president."  
  
She read through the article. It said that they lived in Seattle. She lived in a small city in New York. How would she get to him? He couldn't possibly know where she was. Then Jason came bounding in. Who was Tobias? I couldn't remember what I was so worried about. I looked at the newspaper and thought he has to be a major geek.  
  
"You coming?" He asked nonchalantly.  
  
"No, I don't feel so well."  
  
"Oh come on, you don't have play sick in front of me. If you want to come over to my – "  
  
He scooted closer to me and I backed away. Right then I threw up on him.  
  
"Ugh! My new jacket! You b___ch!" He slapped me. He had never done that before. I started to cry. "Don't you ever do that again!" He spat at me.  
  
"I'm sorry." I heard a slam in the back. Uh oh, mom was home. She worked the night shift in a nursing home. It must be 7:00 already. She walked in and screamed.  
  
"Who are you?!" I don't care who you are! Get out! Get out! Get out!" He jumped up and ran off. Soon, I heard his screeching tires taking off. I was uncontrollable, frantic. Why was this happening to me? Then I thought of the boy in the newspaper. He wasn't a geek. What was I thinking? He was the most important thing in my life. I had to get to Seattle.  
  
"Mom, I don't feel so good. Can I stay home?" I got up and went to the bathroom again.  
  
Mom let me stay home. At about 2:00 I went to the clinic while my mother went to a meeting at work. She didn't know I had gone. I knew what my symptoms were leading up too. I had seen it before, morning sickness, and mood swings. I was crying all day long for no reason. I still had the feeling to go to Seattle. The thought scared me. I could be pregnant. I went up to the desk and filled out a few forms. Luckily, they do the youngest patients first and their weren't many kids there.  
  
About an hour later they called my name. They showed me to a room and told me to wait. The doctor came shortly, the first time in fifteen years. What he basically did was to give me a pregnancy test and told me to follow the instructions. I went to the bathroom and opened the box. I was nervous.  
  
I followed the directions on the box. The results were conclusive. I was pregnant with a kid whose father I hated. The doctor was going through the few options I had. Abortion, Adoption, or spend the next eighteen years with a kid I had no way of providing for. I just ran out of the doctor's office. I went home and gathered some clothes and put them in the wash. I was going to Seattle. I gathered up a few other things as well. I got my math and science book and put them in my backpack. My mom was asleep so I went to her purse and stole a few bucks, about forty dollars. I knew she had money. She was just too lazy to spend it on her starving daughter.  
  
I waited for the clothes to wash and dry and I stuffed as many as I could into my backpack. Then I took off. I got in the car with my restricted license that only allows me to go to school and work and took off. I stopped at the train station. I hoped I could get a cheap train ticket. The cheapest one was thirty dollars and left in thirteen hours. I slept in the station. I couldn't go back home, I didn't have any friends except for Cassie. There I go again, Cassie wasn't my friend. She talked to me a lot though. She was always asking if I was okay. She was a nice person.  
  
I drifted off to sleep. I had a dream where I was flying. I was an eagle soaring high above the trees and I saw the lightning bolt that played with my mind. I had another dream where I was in a room. It was my room but in a bigger house. My mom was a successful lawyer. I was waiting for someone. Pretty soon he came and knocked on my window. No, he didn't knock. He didn't have hands to do it with. He had wings. I awoke at about 2:30. I went to the bathroom and started vomiting again. Ugh.  
  
I walked out of the bathroom feeling very sick. I wanted to kill myself for letting him do that to me. I sat there and waited for my train to arrive. It was coming at 4:00, which is good.  My mother wouldn't notice me missing until I was well out of here.  I boarded the train. I found my seat and breathed for the first time in ages. I was doing something right. I was doing something that felt right. I smiled; I would finally meet Tobias. I had a picture of him in my head. I pictured he would greet me like I was a long lost friend, that he would kiss me and say that he would love me forever and ever whether I was pregnant or not. It was stupid. I didn't know him at all. It just felt like we should be together. I remembered the dream. We were going to fly like we always did back before. I fell back asleep. The dream came back again. . .


	2. The Gate 2

**The Gate: Chapter 2**

A/N: Part I: A strange electrical storm hurls Rach & Toby into another universe.****

**Animorph**** universe, Cassie**

I walked up to the house after I had finished some chores. I went straight to the kitchen and gathered some bread, bologna, and mustard for a sandwich. Does that sound weird? I don't know. My parents think so. I have been eating it that way since I was little. I glanced at the paper. On the front page was a picture of a lightning bolt. I read the article and it said it was an electrical storm. It had caught the meteorologists off guard. It concerned me for some reason. I was laughing. All I could think of was that _it actually worked_, and I didn't know what I had done to make what work. Somehow my sub-conscious found it hilarious. _I_ found it frightening. Then the phone rang. It scared me to death. I sat there staring at it. It rang and rang.

"Cassie, will you get that, please!" My mother yelled. Slowly, I picked it up.

"Hello." I said nervously

"Oh Cassie, have you seen Rachel today?" Naomi asked. She sounded frantic

"No. Why?"

"She never came down to breakfast. I went up to look and she was gone." Naomi started to cry. "She does this a lot. I wish she would tell me why."

"I'm sure she's not doing anything bad."

"I don't know what to think anymore. She used to do everything, and had so much energy. Now she lock's herself in her room all the time." I heard a crash in the background. "Oh, Sara. Oh." She groaned, "I've got to go. Call if you hear anything. Bye." She hung up before I could say anything else.

I glanced at the paper again. I saw two birds flying up towards it. I told myself it didn't mean anything. I couldn't shake the feeling off. I grabbed the phone and speed dialed Jake.

**Tobias **

I walked down the hall to my history class. Brian went to English down another hall. I sighed. I was sweating, shaking, and delirious about this test. I creeped up to the door and slowly opened it. I tiptoed my way in and sat down in the back and waited. Mr. Miller was sitting at his desk quietly waiting for everybody to sit down. The bell rang like a sudden omen of certain death. He handed out the 3-page test. He pointed to the board. He had everything we were supposed to do. Mr. Miller never talked. Most of his class was filling out study guides and studying them. Right now we were studying the constitution. It was a basic test, I thought. It went over the bill of rights and such. 

Towards the end of class I filled out the last bubble on the test, and handed it in. I had a very high fever at that moment. I didn't know why I had to learn this stuff. I know what the laws are in America. I kept telling myself that was all I needed to know. 

I thought about that girl named Rachel. When I did, I felt trapped. There was not any sky. I looked up and saw mold growing on the ceiling. It didn't feel right. I felt like a bird trapped in a four-wall nightmare. Then again, I _was_ a bird. I don't know how I knew but I knew everything there was about flying. I knew what a thermal was and I haven't really studied aerodynamics or ornithology that well to know. Somehow I knew the bird's body. Maybe I was sick. 

I was trying to convince myself that it was my imagination, but not with that girl. She wanted me to be a human so bad. I loved her so much. I worried about her all the time, and she worried about me. The bell rang once again and I nearly had a heart attack. I headed toward trig class. It is my favorite class.

Part of me wanted to figure out how to get out of this surreal world. Where I was rich and famous. Another part of me wanted to figure out how to make these hallucinations go away. I decided then to get through the rest of the day with some sanity left. I focused on the good things. I would be getting out of English today. That was a good thing. Dad was going to try to run for president. He was a Republican, but he did have some controversial liberal policies about economic reform.  My dad would humor Bill at dinner once again. That was always funny. I had an interview on_ The Chris Smith Show_. I would get to humor him. (These talk show hosts think they know everything about everyone.) Another thing was that Mom was going to have a kid, that was cool, I thought. 

After trig class, I went to lunch. They had some mysterious ham stuff and potatoes. I thought about a bunch of other things to keep me focused. I stomached my lunch and went through the rest of the day without many problems.

After gym I headed out front and met my dad in the mustang. I don't know why he likes that car so much. Over the years it's been beaten down into a metal frame on three wheels.

**Rachel **

I woke up after a horrible dream. I saw Tobias lying on the ground. His beak was shattered, his wings broken. David. I desperately tried to revive him but he was gone. No breathe, no pulse, nothing. I cried and cried. I woke to hear a baby crying. The last thing I wanted to hear. I would have to get used to that, I guess. I looked back and saw Cassie. She was sitting next to a woman with a baby. Cassie had this glow around her. She reached over and touched the baby's head. The baby quieted down instantly. 

"Cassie." I whispered, but she was gone. She had disappeared. 

"Excuse me?" The woman said. 

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else." She went back to tending her baby. 

I got up and headed for the bathroom. Another vomiting attack had come. I had spit up everything I had eaten in the last two days. I looked up from the rotting, pink mess and saw Cassie. She looked different. She had always worn just jeans and a T-shirt, but now she had on a black tank top, black flared jeans and Skechers with three-inch soles on them. She looked kind of Goth. In my dreams, I always teased her about her short jeans. She wore them because she helped her dad in this barn. No dress pants there. Argh! I was getting so sick of this.

"Sick of what?" She just stood there smiling. She vanished again. There is some spooky stuff going on here. What did I do to be put in this position? Instinctively, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cigarettes that Jason had given me. I cried, once again. I couldn't smoke, not when I was pregnant. Besides they were Jason's. I didn't want anything to remind me of him, but that would be impossible. I was going to have his kid. _That was stupid_, I thought, I would have someone to remind me of him for the rest of my life. He did this to me. Whatever drug he gave me was making me hallucinate. All of a sudden I heard a screeching sound. The train was stopping.

I gathered my stuff and headed off the station. The station was a little more modern than the one in our town. It looked a bit neater. I walked straight out of there into the fresh air. I turned around and walked back inside. They had TV's turned to some local talk show. I saw him, Tobias. He wasn't ugly I thought. Oh, no, he wasn't ugly at all. He had a sweet voice, kind of poetic. He would make a good Shakespearean actor, I thought. He was kind of tall, with blond hair. He had a sort of Roman style haircut. I thought of Romeo and Juliet. I thought of it not only because of his voice but also because of our situation. Never mind. I didn't know what I was thinking about anymore. I was thinking about that dream. He was so sweet and caring. I loved him so much. I wish I could fall asleep for a hundred years and just talk to him. 

It took sheer willpower to draw myself away from that TV set. I walked down the street. It looked like the upper class section. I walked about a mile when I realized that I should be heading towards the Microsoft building. I had no clue where anything was. I asked somebody and they gave me some vague description of all of Seattle. I walked a little further and sighed. I stopped. A cab had pulled up next to me. Weird, it looked like a Hirsch, but it definitely was a cab. It had its company logo on it. 

"Hey, Rachel, do you need a ride somewhere?" I looked in and saw Cassie driving the cab. I went over and got in. 

"What are you?" I asked. I was sick of her following me everywhere. How did she get a cab to drive or a driver's license? She's got connections or something. 

"You will learn."

"Don't put the spooky crap on me, okay!" I screamed. She laughed. I couldn't believe it. She sat there and laughed. 

"Yes, Yes, whatever. Where do you want to go?" 

"Don't you know where I want to go?" 

"Well, yes, you want to find Tobias. Am I correct?" 

"Yeah. So take me there." 

"I afraid I don't work like that sweetie. I don't have the power of will." 

I grabbed her and spit in her face. "Don't f___ with me okay! I AM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD TO BE MESSED WITH. Now tell me what is going on."

"Oh no that would make it to easy. I have rules to follow you know. I can't do whatever I want even with the power I have, okay. So don't f___ with me either. Now tell me where you want to go or we'll never get there."

I sighed, "I want to go to Tobias's place."

"Very well then." We took off in the opposite direction. She made a few turns and stopped at this huge mansion.

"No charge for the ride." She smiled and took off. Great, exactly what I needed, SuperCassie with a sense of humor. 

I walked up the drive. It was a basic three-story mansion. Well, as basic as a mansion gets, anyway. I walked straight into the house. There was a lobby like place. It looked magnificent. It had pictures of the family and all that. It had a picture of the Microsoft place. On the right wall, there was a picture of Tobias, by himself. I wanted to rip it down. He was the key to what was happening. I sighed. _I am really sick of this._ I screamed at the non-existent Cassie. I walked into one of the side rooms. It was a kitchen. I cried, when I saw a woman passed out on the floor. She looked like she was about eight months pregnant. I dropped everything and went over and tried to wake her up. She was out cold. Out of instinct I reached for the phone, and dialed 911. 

"This is the Seattle nine-one-one center. How may we help you?" I nearly screamed because she was so cheerful.

"There is a woman passed out here. She's pregnant."

"Okay, ma'm. Can you please tell me where you are calling from?"

"I don't know the address." I said stupidly. "Can't you trace the call, or something?" 

She sighed and said, "Just a minute, please" I waited a few minutes. "Okay ma'm we'll have someone out there immediately. I waited a few minutes. An ambulance came. They wanted to know why I was in the house. I said I knew them. They criticized my clothes and didn't believe me. I was hysterical. I was crying and screaming. They gave me a tranquilizer. I was out immediately.

**Tobias**

We buckled in and took off. I swear my dad does not know what a speed limit is. 

"So how's mom." 

"She's fine." 

"That's good. What is she having?" I asked. 

"We should find out next week." He grinned. He loves kids. He loves everybody. I can't explain it. It's like he feels obligated to protect the earth. He's an environmentalist, and philanthropist. 

We stopped at this huge building. BGNR studios. That's what the sign out front said:

**BGNR Studios**

**Home of the Chris Smith Show**

We walked in to find people buzzing around. One person found us and escorted us to make-up. I felt like a dork. I _do not_ wear make-up. Then we were rushed to the studio. They gave me some tips on what to do. Then I heard the announcer call my name. 

"Break a leg." Someone said. I turned around and saw a black girl. She looked familiar. I could only think Cassie. I wanted to find out what was happening.

"Find out what?" She asked. I tripped on to the stage. She read my mind. I couldn't believe it! That girl, named Cassie had read my mind. I regained my balance and walked out towards the front where Chris Smith greeted me, and we proceeded with the interview.

The first question Chris Smith asked me was, "What is it like to be _you,_ the son of the richest man in the world_?"_

He put way too much emphasis on you. What's its like, you ask? Well, the hard thing is knowing what _not_ to tell people on TV. People twist things around so bad. If I mentioned my best friend's name was Brian. They would get the wrong idea, if you know what I mean. It would be all over the tabloids and my dad might be out of a job. 

I remember last year, because of a delayed answer on an interview question, my dad was rumored to be in an anti-trust suit, and that he had hired the best lawyers. Certain people thought he was trying to take over the whole computer industry. (Or maybe it was Bill trying to make people think that he was trying to take over the computer industry.) Mom thought it was funny. Dad turned to stone. He gave a bitter, angry speech on that at a press conference and all was well. 

If I had told Chris Smith what had happened today, I would be in serious trouble. People would think that I was going schizophrenic, and maybe I was. It wasn't like I saw satellites digging into my brain. It wasn't a bad thing at all to see the most beautiful girl of my dreams show up in my daydreams. She wasn't pieced together from bits of memory from TV or magazines. She was a real person. I wanted to know where she was. I wanted to find her or I would _really_ go crazy. 

I tried to picture her more clearly in my mind but it was like a part of my mind didn't want to remember. Something about seeing Mom and Dad, and feeling like I would never see them again. When I saw her I saw blue. I saw sharp blades, and menacing eyes. I saw his blade come and slash at another one just like him. I could see a little girl in the distance, yelling "ELFANGOR!"

"Tobias?" Chris stared at me puzzled. I snapped out of my reverie. There were so many weird thoughts going through my head at once, I couldn't answer his question.

"Excuse me." I left. It was a really stupid thing to do knowing what the audience was expecting. I went to the bathroom and poured some water on my face. I quickly made up a story in my head about how I was nervous, or something like that. I came out and nearly ran into my dad. He was crying. He held the beeper in his hand and told me - Mom was in the hospital. 

We left. We didn't say anything we just left. We headed straight for St. Mary's hospital. Dad was cruising down the highway at 80 m.p.h. We got there in five minutes with a trail of cops behind us, not escorting us. We went in and found Mom in the delivery room. The doctors told us that they would do a C-section and they used some medical terms that I didn't understand. Dad told me to go to the waiting room.

**Rachel**

The ambulance came. The paramedics came in and took her vitals. Her breath and pulse were shaky. They put her on the stretcher and started asking me a lot of questions. They wanted to know if she had any medication, or allergies. I said I didn't know. The guy looked at me suspiciously. 

"Do you know her name?" 

"Well, no." I gave a faint chuckle. I was shaking. Couldn't they just take her to the hospital?

"Well, what happened, you just walked into the house from the street and saw this woman lying on the floor and called us?!" He tried to keep his calm. 

"Yes." I whimpered. He did not want to hear that. He got out his walkie-talkie and talked to someone about what just happened. 

I heard, "Take her with you in a separate vehicle. We'll question her at the hospital." 

"Um, could you tell me who you were talking to?" 

He laughed, "Someone you won't like before the day is done. Come on, we're leavin'." He said with a stern face. He grabbed my arm and hauled me out to a highway patrol car. He shoved me in the back and drove off. 

It was a long ride. The patrol officers were snickering about how they had to baby-sit a little girl. I felt something poke at me. It seemed like I should have slapped him and watched his head roll. I felt a new energy come upon me. I felt powerful. 

I straightened up and calmly said, "I am not a little girl." 

The patrol officers just rolled their eyes. I didn't feel like I could sit up anymore. I made a prediction; Cassie would show up at the hospital. She showed up when I needed her. I could barely remember Cassie from what I saw of her. You see I had begun to formulate some of what happened. I knew there was a war that we were fighting, Tobias, Cassie, and I. I didn't know what war it was, I couldn't see who was fighting it. 

There were six of us. I saw the big monsters, and large and small slugs. I assumed that maybe they were genetically engineered. I had heard about doing it on chickens, but you never know what _they _(as in the Feds)are going to do with what. Then I thought that maybe they were aliens. I didn't believe in such things. I always assumed that aliens were too advanced or too primitive for us. 

I didn't want to believe it. I told my self it was impossible for things like that to happen. I had given up. I had to stop thinking about this stuff. Jason had drugged me and it had some bad side effects. 

The ambulance stopped at St. Mary's. I waited for the paramedics to get the woman off. Then a cop met me and led me inside. We went into a side room. It looked like a small office. There were a few chairs, a desk, and a phone. 

"What were you doing inside that house?" He scared me. He had a deep voice. I didn't know what to say. I hopped on a cab with a strange girl who answered to higher powers?

"I came here from a small town in New York. I came here on a train. Now, this is the strange part. I walk out of the station and this girl with a cab pulled and asked me if I wanted a free ride. I didn't have that much money, so I said sure. I got in and she drops me off at that house and she told me that somebody was waiting for me in there. I walked in out of curiosity and found the woman passed out on the floor."

"Really," He looked like he was about to fall asleep. "Uh, you know. You could get into really deep trouble from something like this, breaking and entering. So why don't you tell me the truth." 

"I told you the truth, a-and the door was unlocked." Just then a very angry man walked in. 

"What did you do to her?!", the angry man said. 

"I didn't do anything! Please you got to believe me!" I sat there and cried. 

"Oh no. Please calm down. I wasn't going to do anything, really." His face softened. 

"Really." He nodded. "I-is-is she all right?" He smiled. I took it as a good sign.

"I just want to know how you found her. You saved her and her baby's life." The angry man had calmed down.  The police officer looked shocked that he didn't start accusing me of attempted manslaughter

"I don't know. It's a long story." He laughed

"I have a boxful of long stories. Tell me." 

"Well, I needed to see Tobias." I said

"Why do you want to see my son?" He asked. Tobias's dad! I was getting really lucky today and it was starting to spook me out a little.

"Well, I woke up one morning from a really weird dream. I saw Tobias turning into a bird of some sort. It was a really gory transformation. Feathers sprouted from his body. His lips stretched out into a beak. It was awful. I had the funny feeling that he wasn't turning from a human to a bird but the other way around. Then I turned into a bald eagle, much the same way, and we fly away together. Then there were monsters with blades and he would protect me from them. It was weird."

"So you came here because of a dream ah, from New York you say, because of a dream?!" The police officer raged.  
  


"Uh, could you leave me alone with her for a minute?" The Alan asked the police officer.

"Whatever, I don't think she can physically hurt anyone," He chuckled "There is the phone, dial 768 if you have any trouble with her" 

"Thank you," He said to the officer.

"You came from _where_ in New York?" He asked

"Renhaussler.", I replied.

"That's where we used to live." He seemed perplexed about something. 

"What do you mean?"

"Tobias, that woman, who happens to be his mother, and I used to live in Renhaussler. Now tell me, how did my son turn into a bird?"

"I don't know. I was hallucinating. A few nights ago I was drugged and raped by my boyfriend." I stopped suddenly. I just remembered I was pregnant. I cried once again. 

"Y-y-you were raped?" He asked. I could tell he was about to choke. 

"And now I'm pregnant. I don't know why I came here. It was a hallucination. Tobias doesn't even know me. I guess I had to get away from there. That morning Jason came into my trailer and slapped me for puking on his jacket."

He looked at me. He looked very concerned for me. "You came here under tremendous odds. You could have been hurt, or worse. Look, how about we get you checked out by a doctor, and when we get Loren taken care of we'll let you stay with us." He smiled. 

I couldn't believe it! I was being spared a cot at the Y and I would have to meet Tobias sooner or later.

Mr. Fangor led me down a hall, and he arranged for a doctor to see me. I couldn't believe I didn't recognize him before. I waited there for an hour or two before a doctor came for me. He ran some tests and told me to come back in a week. I went out into the hall, but Mr. Fangor wasn't there. I saw a pay phone on the wall. I put in fifty cents and called my Mom. 

"Hello?" Mom said. She sounded tired.

"Mom, it's me."

"Oh God where are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I'm in Seattle." My mother exploded. She then figured out where her money went to. 

"I am staying with someone okay. I have to go, bye." I hung up the phone abruptly. I took a deep breath. I looked around and saw Mr. Fangor standing there. 

"You ready to go?" He asked

"Yeah."

We went towards the waiting room and I saw him, Tobias. I started to cry. The boy of my dreams, literally. 

**Tobias**

I sat down in the waiting room. I was shaking down to the bone. I couldn't possibly know what was wrong with my mom. I was about to cry but I had to hold them back. Too many people in the room recognized me. They didn't say anything but they knew. I moved to the other side of the room. It wasn't a small room so I moved. 

I felt like I barely knew my mother. I remember waking up today thinking I had no clue where I was. I thought I had wings and was flying with a beautiful girl who happened to be an eagle. I hadn't told my Dad this. I thought he was a cool person. He knew everything. He was always trying to make the world a better place and he loved my mother. Is this mushy enough for you yet? 

I remember from the dream that I didn't have a family. I sighed. I put my head in my hands and stared at the floor. 

"How you doing?" I looked up and saw Cassie. I still didn't know who she was. "I bet you want to know what I am and what I'm doing here."

"What do you mean 'what I am?' You look human to me."

"Oh really, do you know what my name is?" She asked.

"I don't know, Cassie."

"No, No, No. You're thinking about my counterpart in the real world. Sweet thing, really, I couldn't live without her. I, on the other hand, don't have a name. No one took the time to name me. After a while though, I decided to call myself Cassandra. The Cassie that exists on this plane is a quiet girl.  She doesn't have any friends. She keeps to herself and she helps people whenever she can."

"Okay Cassandra, what about the second question because I don't have a freaking clue."

"Well, you were nicer than Rachel. I can't really say until you are together. I can tell you that it is more because of Rachel than you and that you should listen to your dreams." Before I could say more she got up, touched my hand and I fell to sleep. I had a dream, naturally. I saw a barn, or was it _the_ barn. There were some kids sitting there talking. I couldn't hear what was being said. I looked down on them, feeling sorry for myself. Then they started to do something. At first I couldn't make it out but then in a few minutes they had turned into animals. I woke up. Dad was shaking me.

"Come on, let's go." He said. I looked up and saw that there were two people standing there, Dad, and _her._ She was standing a little ways off.  It was Rachel. The key to all this, as Cassandra had subtly stated. 

"Oh, Tobias, do you know this girl?" Dad asked. He looked concerned because she was crying 

I didn't know what to say. I stood up and took her hand. It felt like silk. Her hair shone like the sun. She was tall and wonderfully built, just the right proportions. 

"Are you okay?" I asked. She shook her head, no. I felt immediate concern. "Why not?" 

"We'll talk, okay." She choked out. Something I had never seen before as a human, tears. I did something that I will never regret. I stood up and hugged her and kissed her. My Dad looked at me in shock. I felt kind of dumb doing that in front of the occupants of the waiting room. That might have been a reporter sitting in the corner but I didn't care. Dad told me she would stay at our place if we promised that we didn't share a room. 


	3. The Gate 3

**The Gate: Chapter 3**

A/N: Caution: If you don't like twists on Christianity. -- DON'T READ. I'm sorry, I couldn't think of any other story! I have no experience in boy\girlfriend fights. This story is as fluffy as a down pillow. Otherwise, the _tell-all_ segment.

**New York**

Jason was furious. He didn't see Rachel at school. He could only think about how she was cheating on him. He had worked up a scheme of how she had run away and married some jerk. In his opinion he was God. Everybody had to bow down to him, especially his girlfriend. Everyone at school feared Jason. Everyone thought it was natural that Jason and Rachel should pair up. They were the two grungiest people in that school. He thought so too. 

When school let out Jason went straight to Rachel's. He broke the door open and found Naomi, back toward him, crying. He roughly grabbed her shoulders and twisted her around. 

**"WHERE IS SHE?!"** Jason's voice sounded almost inhuman. His eyes bulged out. The veins in his neck were about to break through the skin.

She screamed. 

He casually slapped her, knocking her out. She slumped to the floor. Jason kicked her aside and reached for the phone. There wasn't a caller ID on it, so he couldn't tell if Rachel had called. He kicked her again. He thought, and reached down and pulled Naomi up, trying to wake her. He was not successful. Then Jason heard a kettle whistle. It was on the stove. Jason threw Naomi on the floor and reached for the kettle. He smiled.

"Time for tea." He said. Jason poured it on Naomi. She awoke. Jason jumped on her and straddled her. He grabbed her throat and squeezed.

"Where is Rachel?" He said through clenched teeth.

Defiantly she said, "I'm not telling." He removed one hand from her throat and touched the top of her jeans. He squeezed harder with the other hand. She didn't want that to happen again.

"Seeeaaatttllleee." She squeezed out. Jason bent down and kissed Naomi very affectionately.

"Thank you." He whispered

With his face an inch away from hers, and his hand unzipping her jeans he said, "Too old." She tried to scream but she couldn't. He didn't go any further. 

Jason saw a newspaper in a trashcan. It had a picture of Alan Fangor on it, but all he saw was the word "Seattle" and somewhere in his mind he thought she must be staying with him.

**Rachel **

Loren wasn't doing so hot. They stuck her in ICU for the night. Mr. Fangor, Tobias, and I hopped into a brand-new car. It was a hybrid car, the kind I have only read about. Mr. Fangor turned on the car, and it ran beautifully. Mr. Fangor floored it and we headed to his place at 50 mph through a residential area. In the backseat, I yawned. The clock in the front of the car said 5:30. 

When they got home I was gone. I was a rock. They had been shaking me for five minutes before I awoke. 

"Thank God, I thought you were dead." Tobias smiled at me. I stepped out and walked through a large garage. The hybrid was the only car in it. The car looked rather lonely. When I was finally outside, I saw a pool and a little cottage. Then there was the back of the house. Somehow they had managed to put every flower imaginable on the back wall of their house. I didn't know flowers could grow that way. 

Tobias whispered in my ear, "really hard soil." I laughed. His breath in my ear made me want to dance. All I let out was a small grin. Mr. Fangor walked ahead to the door. He took out his keys and then noticed that the door was unlocked.

"Huh, I must have forgot to lock it." He said. I thought then that if he hadn't forgotten to lock the door Loren could be dead. The thought gave me a chill, but shrugged it off. We walked down a short hallway and I found myself in the kitchen.

"Well, I guess I'll have to cook something for dinner." I gave Tobias a look. I had never heard of a good male cook.

"Don't worry; he's better than the maid. But don't tell _her_ that." He said. 

I looked at him and asked, "You have a maid?" 

He laughed. "Come on, I'll give you the grand tour." He took my hand and led me up a beautiful staircase into a magnificent corridor with lots of rooms.

"This is the maid's room to the right here. She's not there because it's her night off and she's with her mother." He pointed. He explained the whole thing. His parents' room was in the center and across from that was the nursery. His room was at the end of the hall _far_ away from the kid's room. Each bedroom had its own bathroom and that's what the other doors were for. It seemed pretty simple to me. I leaned against the wall and yawned. I was so tired. I could've slept standing against the wall for a hundred years. Tobias looked at me but didn't say anything. I realized that _he didn't know._ Oh no, what would I tell him. He would be so heartbroken. Would he believe that I was raped?

I reached for a door handle right beside me. I struggled to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. I slid to the floor and cried. I couldn't hold it in. 

**Tobias**

"What's wrong?" I asked. She had been acting weird ever since I saw her. I didn't understand why she cried every time she saw me. When I saw her I could barely contain my deepest impulses. That sounded poetic, huh? My mom can't understand why I hate English so much. She says everything I do is poetic and if I just put it to paper I would have my own riches. Whatever.

I couldn't stand to see her cry. It tore my heart open. I sat down beside her. I put my arm around her shoulders. She rested her head on my shoulder. I begged her to tell me what was wrong. She kept saying that she was just in a mental state of shock. She tried to tell me nothing was wrong. 

I sat there for a few minutes. She wouldn't budge. I realized that she was asleep. I couldn't wake her. I stood up. I stretched out my shoulders and arms. I put one arm under her knees and the other under her arms and picked her up. I don't know how I did it. She didn't look like it, but she had stuff under that skin. 

I dragged myself to my room. I set her on my bed. She must have had some day. I was a little tired myself but then I heard the call for dinner through the intercom. I pulled some blankets over Rachel and went downstairs. 

Dad had made steak. It figured. It's the one thing he could live on for the rest of his life. When he is in a nursing home, they will grind up steak and put it in his feeding tube. 

"Where is our guest?" He asked

"Asleep." I answered. 

"I figured. She'll probably want something in the morning"

"What do you mean?" I asked. He gave me a weird look then he just laughed. I thought he was crazy. He took away the extra plate and set it in the refrigerator. We said a prayer for Rachel. The steak tasted okay, but it was a little bland. I felt like I was waiting for something. I swallowed up my dinner and headed back upstairs. 

I couldn't believe how much Rachel looked like my mother. They had the same build, the same personality, the same crystal water eyes, and the same roaring blond hair. I headed toward my room. I opened the door and saw her moving violently on the bed. I ran to her side and tried to wake her. I nearly missed getting slapped by her flailing hands. 

After a few minutes of hassling, I decided to do something really daring. I stood up and stared into her eyes. I brought my head down closer and closer and kissed her. The second time today, I would never get used to the feeling. 

She woke with a jump and hugged me. 

"I saw them, the monsters, the lawn-mower monsters. They kept coming; there were hundreds of them. They kept cutting. . ." She cried onto my shoulders. It was all babble until she mentioned "the blue guy." The blue guy with one blade unlike the other. Was it possible that she was dreaming the same thing as me?

"Did he have a look in his eye, like, like, like a monster?"

"Yeah." She looked up from her sobbing. "And the other monsters?" She asked

"Are called Taxxons, aren't they," I said.

"Don't tell me we've been having the same dreams," she said.

"Well, I don't know. Did you have a dream about us turning into birds and flying away?" I asked her

"Yes." She sounded excited. I could almost see her coming back to life inside. "What do you think it means?" She asked

"I know." A feminine voice said. I looked over my shoulders and saw Cassandra. Something was always strange about her appearance. She had really short hair, a black, bare midriff tank top, and big cargo jeans. It didn't seem right. 

She continued, "Your minds are still plagued by the thoughts and fears of your former existence." 

Rachel and I looked at each other and said at the same time, "Do you know her?" 

Consequently, she laughed. "Yes, she knows me, Tobias. Well, hey everybody knows me in some shape or form. In the former world I am Cassie, and will always be Cassie, the nurturing little brat who will one day unwillingly be a traitor to the human race by her good graces." She stood silent for a minute or two staring at us.

"What do you want?" Rachel asked. 

"I want _you_ to ask about me. I am your humble servant." She made a slight bow, barely holding in laughter. She's really high on herself, I thought.

Rachel turned to me and asked, "What do we ask?" 

"What are you?" I asked. I knew it was a pointless question. 

"Well the best analogy I can give you is that of an angel, a guardian angel perhaps. I give life to people's dreams. I set fire to the wicked ways and banish all evil from this divine place." 

"Why is this place divine?  I've found it a regular hell so far." Rachel said. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"It was what you wanted in the former world. You must accept the consequences." Cassandra stated. "That's what this place is about. Making people dreams come true. I merely assist them."

"You said you were a guardian angel of sorts.  Then, who is god?" I asked. My curiosity was spilling over the edge. I had so many questions. Somehow, I was so sure I would get an answer. I didn't know where this was coming from.

"He doesn't have a name. He sits up there somewhere and does the head manager job. As I told you Tobias, even I didn't have a name. Nobody cares. We only care about making sure everybody here is safe, and the sad news is you aren't. You are not supposed to be here. You still belong in the former world of your recent dreams. Where you Tobias are a bird, and you Rachel are his keeper."

"Ugh! You mean he's my pet! My brain and nerves have been drained because of a bird!"

She laughed, "No, He's not a bird in the normal sense - Oh, here." Exasperated, she moved toward us and lightly brushed the side of our cheeks. "You won't like this." 

Suddenly, I remembered. I had a whole other life out in the universe, and for some reason, I wanted to go back. I don't know why. I loved it here. I didn't remember everything, but I knew why we were birds. It was for a special cause, a war. Then I thought of the ultimate question.

"Why don't you tell us everything, Cassandra?"

She smiled, "Okay. –"

So here it is.

"This is the afterlife. It doesn't look magnificent, but it took vast amounts of energy to create. At the time of the big bang, there was a major energy surplus. The universe was doomed from the first minute of its birth. But! Universes are very smart things. It decided to make the first living thing, and it decided to make it immortal. That was so it would always suck off the left-over energy that would otherwise implode the universe. 

This creature was allowed to do whatever he wanted. _He_ always traveled the universe. _He_ loved seeing the things growing and flourishing, but there was one thing he couldn't stand. Dying. No matter where he went everything died. You must understand that his sense of time was _eons_ not days_._ _He_ would go one place and watch the advancements of the local species. But just as soon as he got there they were gone. 

_He_ asked the universe why people did not appear to him long. Then the universe told him of death. All of it. War, disease, famine, egoism. All things that made sense to do at the flick of a switch like vengeance, greed, pride, envy; they were useless in the long scheme of things. All of those things eventually led to death. _He_ decided to make a place where none of that existed. A place where dreams came true and nothing got in your way. _He_ created this! Living creatures died and didn't notice a thing. They woke up in a bed that they probably slept in 305 of their years ago, and stood up like it was a brand-new day. 

That's this place's story. 

Then there is my story. I am tied to my counterpart in the real world. She has been called, by an outrageous know-it-all hyper-dimensional being, an anomaly. Only because he cannot explain why her time-line was cut in two at birth. That Ellimist, he thinks because he was sucked through a black hole on his trip through the universe-.

Anyway, you're story begins when you were on an early morning flight. Tobias saw his uncle die, and kind of bummed, you flew away and found a friendly beacon of hope up in the sky. You flew and flew and then you were brought in. That was the gate, the sucker of souls you might say. It goes around taking the bodiless souls to paradise. Living, sentient creatures see it as a storm cloud and needlessly prepare for it to hit. Sentience throws away all superstition of any afterlife. You were not sentient creatures at the moment so you saw it and fell for the universe's biggest practical joke. That puts you in a dangerous situation. Your souls are young and do not need this place. Like the stench of a nursing home, you can't stand it for long. If you don't leave soon you will ultimately and finally die. Anyway, my advice to you is to go along with what this world throws you. You can mess things up royally if you don't."

**Rachel**

The moment she finished, she disappeared. I was amazed. I saw who she was. Cassie would never wear that stuff. I mean, she had make-up on, totally non-Cassie, but it wasn't Cassie at all. It was Cassandra. It was confusing I had no idea that she had this power. Tobias looked at me and walked away. He didn't look happy. 

"What was that about?"

"You mean Cassie?"

"No, you.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You found out I was a bird, and you freaked out," he spat. 

"I didn't mean it!" I cried.

"Yeah, whatever." He said and walked out.

"Tobias! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" I screamed. I leaned against the wall and brought my knees to my chin and cried until I was asleep.

"Wake up, Rachel. Come on, wake up."

I jumped up; awake. Mr. Fangor was standing over me, nudging my shoulder. 

"Hey, it's 2:00 in the morning. I think you need to go to bed. You can sleep in here if you want; Tobias went to the guest rooms. He told me to tell you he was sorry. I am not sure why."

I nodded and said, "I'm kinda hungry." 

"Well, we can take care of that right away," he said pointing his finger in the air. He helped me up and led me to the kitchen.

He sat me down at the table and pulled out some spaghetti from the refrigerator. He put it in the microwave for a few seconds. After that he sat down beside me. I noticed that his step was a little shaky and that when he could he held on to the edge of something. When we came here he held on to the rail of the steps to unlock the door. Strange. 

"Have you known him long?" Mr. Fangor asked. 

"I don't know. To tell you the truth, I woke up a few days ago, actually the morning after I was raped, and I got ready for school and saw the newspaper. There was a picture of you and your family. I looked at Tobias and knew everything about him. I knew what his favorite food was. I knew when his birthday was. I know he has a fear of water." At that he flinched.

"Uh huh, he does." 

"I don't know. I kept thinking it was the drug Jason gave me. All I know is, I saw the picture of your son and I think that I felt. Oh, I don't know." I looked down at the table.

"Yes or no. Do you love him?" He looked straight into my eyes. I tried to form the word. BRRRIIINNNGGG!!! 

Both the question and the microwave scared me to death. Mr. Fangor got up, a little annoyed, and put some in a bowl. He read the newspaper while I ate. I ate kind of sloppily. I have never eaten spaghetti that good in my life. In five minutes I was done. He looked sad. 

"You really are pregnant are you?" He asked

"Yeah." I looked down at the table.

"I always felt that part of my job on this planet was to make it better. The atrocities of humankind overwhelm me. I want to push them off this planet. I tried to take in whomever I can who needs help. It has been a wearisome line of work. I have another question to ask you. You can only respond with yes or no. Do you love Tobias?"

"Oh please, don't ask me that. I barely know him."

"I only knew Loren a week before I knew," he stated. Wow. 

"How did you know?"

"She was perfect." He said with a soft smile on his face. 

I looked up at the ceiling and thought about it. Was he perfect? He wasn't that bad on outward appearances. He was very smart, and he wasn't a jerk. It took me about ten minutes to answer.

"Yeah, I do."

"Then you can stay here as long as you like. You can go anywhere with him and stay with him as late as you want. If it turns out you really do love him then stay with him for as long as you live." Mr. Fangor was so poetic like his son. It was a family thing. They put rhythm to whatever they said. It was beautiful. I stood up and he hugged me. 

I went back to bed. I went into the room and found Tobias there waiting for me. 

"Hey! How are you doing?"

I laughed, "You just saw me a few hours ago."

"I know, but I missed you since our first fight you know," he sighed. He looked away for a little bit. 

"I'm sorry I blew up at you, I don't know what I was thinking. How could you have known?" 

I walked towards him and hugged and kissed him. I should have known a simple thing wouldn't turn him away from me.

"Are you going to sleep in here tonight?" He asked. 

"I don't know, I thought I would."

"Well, I'll go to the guestroom, then."

"You know what, I can't let you sleep in a guestroom, and you're not going to let me sleep in a guestroom. So."

"Uh, no. Dad would have a fit."

"No, he wouldn't. He understands and trusts us."

So, anyway, that's what we did. We did it every day. I enrolled in his school, and we got the same classes. I tested for the higher-grade classes. Mrs. Langman was really mad when she saw my skills. I finally told my mother what was going on. She told me what Jason had done. I was crying for days on that one. I could only think that he was on his way over. I took some comfort thinking that he couldn't possibly know where I am. Who would believe I was living with the richest person in the world. 

I never told my mother exactly where I was. I feared Jason. I couldn't imagine what he would do to Tobias.

Loren came home with a beautiful little girl named Cory LeAnn Fangor.

"Wasn't that interesting?" Tobias asked. Today we got out of history for a little talk about the dreaded topic: _sex education. _ Although we weren't doing _that_, they were warning us against things we were doing together. 

We sat down to lunch with Brian. I think he likes me. He's always looking at me or something. He always sits across from me. 

"So, I've got two tickets to Limp Bizkit. Who wants to come?" He asked, looking at me. Tobias dropped his fork.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" He shouted. 

"What do ya mean?"

"You want to go with Rachel don't you?!" He shouted. I think he figured it out. He ran from the cafeteria. Tobias sat back down and continued to eat. He didn't say a word as I stared at him.

We got home and was greeted by Dad, it just seemed right to call him that for he was now my legal guardian, and had a snack. We finished and then we took a walk. It was just in the garden behind the pool. 

We were walking along a path of roses and I swear I saw a shadow behind the trees. I stopped. I looked. Nothing was there. Tobias hadn't seen anything. I felt I was being watched. I looked over my shoulder, and then I heard a footstep. I heard a small roar.

I told Tobias to stop. I definitely heard something. It was getting closer. Tobias could hear it too. We thought it might be someone trimming the trees, but we headed back immediately. 

We had just got around the pool when I heard the loudest sound of my life. It was a gunshot. Tobias screamed. He was hit in the back of the shin. He fell forward on the concrete. Blood was pouring from his leg.

Needless to say, I screamed too. I knelt down by him and put pressure on the wound. I was crying uncontrollably, yelling for whomever it was to come out.

He did.

Jason. 

"You get over here right now!" He said in a low, guttural voice. It was almost inhuman.

"No," I whimpered. He came over and grabbed my neck and stuck the gun in my throat. I thought it would pierce the skin. I screamed and screamed. Suddenly, Mr. Fangor came out. He lunged at Jason. Mr. Fangor kicked him in the shoulder from behind. The gun skittered across the concrete.

I went back to Tobias. He was faint. Most of his blood lay in a pool under him. He kept saying he was fine, but I knew he wasn't. Mr. Fangor was unsuccessfully pinning him down. Jason seemed to absorb everything thrown at him. Then with one punch, Mr. Fangor mustered all the strength in him and threw just one punch and Jason went down. He was out cold.

"DAD!!!!" I cried. I was sobbing so hard I didn't have any strength to hold the wound anymore. He was unconscious. 

"Rachel, call 911. NOW!" He yelled. 

The paramedics came and amazingly didn't recognize me. They took him to the university hospital. They stitched him up and gave him a transfusion. After a few hours they let us see him. 

I ran in there and kissed him.


	4. The Gate 4

**The Gate: Chapter 4**

A/N: As God as my witness, the next chapter _will_ be the end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

**Elfangor**

I let them take Tobias to the hospital. I said I would follow but I didn't. Loren had already left with Cory. Instead, I went up to the roof of my home. That's where I kept my telescope. It was a weak, dull piece of glass that I had bought with my first paycheck. Loren had been angry that I had spent a whole paycheck on it. We had just been married and money was scarce. Loren's family wouldn't help us either. I didn't understand why they hated me. Loren said it was because we had been dating for only a month. She told me that most people waited a year or more. I couldn't wait. The human form I had taken would not let me wait. 

It took three months to get my impulses under control. It wasn't the food or the speaking; it was the strong sexual desire. The ancient desire to mate and procreate overwhelmed me. I understood why there was such a large population on this planet. Part of what helped was the telescope. I looked into it and tried to locate several systems I had been to and known of, including my own. It scared me that I could see the Yeerk system and not mine. I guess it didn't matter because of Z-space travel but the thought rolled in my mind a lot. 

From the beginning of my marriage to Loren I have tried to make this world a better place. It started out with recycling everything. Nothing in our New York home was new. I gave as much as I could to charity. I even sponsored one of those over seas children so they could get proper health care and schooling. (I now have my own foundation.) From what I could tell, humans were advancing rapidly and I didn't want it to be the best man gets the best health care and provisions and use women for breeding, and throw the disabled in the gutter. That's what advancement does to a species; instead of bettering it, it destroys it.

I looked through my telescope. I located the Agidobi system, the Itaricterin system, and the former Hork-Bajir system. The only inhabited (or once inhabited) systems this side of the universe. I just stared through the device. Humans really are in quite a deserted place. 

The first one I mentioned, they had done something to their sun to make it last forever, supposedly. It didn't work. Their sun expanded into the size of a red giant swallowing up their planet. The Itaricterin system was torn apart by subspace fluctuations. It's looks beautiful from here, but there it is chaos. One second it is five thousand years ago and the next it is tomorrow. The species have long since died out. Their metabolism couldn't handle it. Then, well, it is well known what happened to the Hork-Bajir. I would rather be torn apart by subspace tidal waves than be a controller. 

I stared out into space. I stared close to the atmosphere. Sometimes a plane will dash by or you will see a satellite. This time, I saw something strange. It was a red dot barely visible against the night sky. At first I thought it a meteor, but it was moving way to slow; and it seemed to be slowing down. I calculated the size, distance, and E.T.A. in my head. It was the size of a fighter, a few miles away, and it would land in the next few minutes. 

My worst fears had been awakened. It suddenly hit me, all they had to do was monitor the nuclear, radio, and microwave emissions coming from this planet to know that something, someone, was here. . .

**Rachel**

I walked back and forth across the waiting room. I looked down, but I soon stopped. I noticed that my stomach was bulging out a little. So, I stared at the ceiling instead. It had been an hour since they started working on Tobias. It couldn't be any slower. I couldn't believe that Jason had actually figured it out. I didn't tell anyone in Renhaussler where I was. Mom assured me she didn't tell Jason where I was. Maybe she was lying to me. I knew my mother didn't trust me.

I was disturbed by a noise getting louder as it came down the hallway. Suddenly, about thirty people came bursting into the waiting room. There was a bunch of lights and microphones. I realized what they were. The Media. I had never seen anything like it. They were like one body with two-million heads, and hands. There was a doctor trying to pry them off his back. 

"Tobias is my priority, not yours!" The doctor yelled. I ran to him and tugged on his arm. 

"What do you want?!" He shouted. I jumped back. "Oh, I'm sorry. Those reporters are having their field day.  I can see it now, "Attempted assassination of computer billionaire's son."

"Is he all right?" I asked

"Tobias? That's depends. Friend or family?"

I looked down, and said, "Both."

"Huh?"

"Well, I'm his girlfriend, and foster sister," I said. 

He gave me a weird look and said, "Could you be Rachel by any chance?" 

"Well, yeah."

"Well, I found this in his pocket. You must be special"

"Yeah."

I sat down in the nearest chair. I opened the box and looked inside. It was a ring! It was a diamond ring. I thought that maybe it was fake, but then I thought of the money he had. It couldn't be fake. I stared at it for a few minutes. It shined in the light the most spectacular way. I would have screamed if I weren't in a public place. Could it be a; oh, what's the word, yeah: engagement ring. I sighed. It couldn't be.  I'm only sixteen. It's probably just a plain gift, an expensive plain gift. Still, it's beautiful. 

The only thing this ring did for me was to make me worry. We had been there a long time. Dad wasn't here yet. I saw Loren with Cory across the room. Cory was being fussy. She probably didn't notice me with the doctor. I put the ring in my pocket, walked over and sat down next to Loren. 

"Can I hold her?" I said

"Huh, oh, yeah, go ahead. I need to find those diapers. I know there in there somewhere." She fumbled with the diaper bag for a few seconds then she stopped. I realized she was crying. 

She turned around and she said, "I'm a terrible mother. He's been shot and I'm just sitting here. I think how I've raised him. I had _experiences_ when I was a child. They made me hate the world. You see, I never told him, 'Don't talk to strangers.' I always said, 'Never trust _anybody_.' That is why I was always a little weary of you. I never trust anybody outright.

"It's all my fault," I whispered. 

"Why?" 

"That was Jason. My ex-boyfriend. He's extremely jealous. He thinks we're still together." Now, it was my turn to cry. I know I'm doing it a lot. I guess its hormones. "I never told Tobias how much I – I," I was too nervous to finish the sentence in front of her. She was looking at me with a weird look. I think she was figuring it out.

"Oh no, deary. I know you've been through some traumatizing events, but you can't, you don't know what that involves. For one thing, you've only known him a few months."

"But Dad said he knew after a week."

"Yes, well, we had some experiences of our own that shaped our relationship. Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I love him with all my heart and soul, but I wonder sometimes if I could have had a completely normal life with someone else, or if I was destined to be with Alan. I can tell you that sometimes I feel that I'm not in control, and it scares me," she told me. 

I gave her a sympathetic look. Towards the end her speech she kind of lost some sense. So she didn't know what was going on. She didn't know she was dead. But, I thought, what if she's not dead. I remembered Cassandra's speech. People wake up in a bed they had slept in 350 of their years ago. I thought about that. Would the dead person wake up and find the world just as it was then. What if somebody from that world was still alive, would they be projected in this dream world? 

I don't know, I don't think it mattered much. It wouldn't help me get back to the real world. I rocked Cory gently when suddenly she burst out with loud crying sobs. I forgot that Loren was supposed to change her. We laughed and Loren set her down and changed her. When she was finished she handed her back to me. 

"Why do I have to hold her?" I asked, on the edge of being annoyed. 

"Because she seems to like you."

"Oh." So I took her in my arms. She went out like a light. She sighed and went to sleep. 

About two hours later, a doctor came in and woke Loren and me up. It was about nine o'clock. Tobias was conscious. We followed the doctor down a long hallway. In room 624 lay my boyfriend Tobias. His leg was propped up very delicately. 

**Tobias**

The last thing I remember was Rachel holding the monstrous hole in my leg. I remember the blinding pain that went through my whole body. I couldn't quite remember the guy who shot me. I could see him grab Rachel and sticking the gun in her neck. I wanted to _hurt _him, right then. First, it was Brian. Then a lunatic sneaks on to our property and tries to kill us both. I'm starting to wonder what had gone on in New York that made her come here. 

I thought of the press. They should be sneaking in here in about an hour or so. I heard a few footsteps, but it wasn't them. It was a doctor, and the two most important women in my life. Mom and Rachel. I tried to sit up, knowing what Rachel would do, but I couldn't. Instead I found the controls for the bed. I raised it up and found I could only move it about a foot before my foot started to scream.

Rachel ran up to my bed and kissed me, slow and methodically. That made me feel a little better. 

"Hi, Tobias. My name is Doctor Visser. I worked on your leg," he said. Then he started his prognosis, "Tobias, you're leg is badly damaged. That bullet shattered everything. You're very lucky, but on the other hand you're not. I don't see you walking in about a year."

"What!" All three of us said at the same time. 

"Yes, well, that weapon was no BB gun.  However, with physical and occupational therapy we'll get you walking in no time. Meanwhile, I would suggest you get around in a wheelchair."

Rachel had tears in her eyes. It reminded of when she found out I was going to be a bird for the rest of my life. The silent, solemn tears knowing I wasn't going to be any better any time soon. The doctor left and so did Mom; she was crying. 

Rachel pulled up a chair and sat next to me. 

"What are we going to do?" She asked. 

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

"I can't do that. I love you." Her eyes bulged out and her cheeks went red. I don't think she meant to say that. She rested her head on the arm rails of the bed. 

I leaned over and whispered, "I love you too."

The doctor came in with a wheelchair ruining our magic moment. A couple of nurses helped me out, and I was glad I had on a large hospital gown. 

"Tobias, you're mother went home to get you some clothes."

"Why?"

"Because we have no reason to keep you here. Your home is reasonably healthy to live in.  Now, I want you to put up your right hand and say, 'I will never'"

I put my right hand up and repeated his words. 

"I will never."

"Put anything on my leg."

"Not even a milligram of weight."

"For it could have disastrous effects."

"Good," he said. "You keep that promise, and you Rachel, be his Jiminy Cricket for me." Then he left. I looked at Rachel. She was barely containing herself with laughter.

"Which part is funnier? The fact that I'm wearing a dress, or that I had say an oath." She didn't answer me. She was laughing too hard.

She calmed down enough to say, "I'm just _really_ glad you're alive." She came over and hugged me very delicately. 

"I'm not a porcelain doll, you know," he said. I wrapped my arms around her as hard as I could, nearly asphyxiating her. "You know for some reason, I don't think being alive really matters in this world."

"Do you want to go back?" She asked.

"Well, I don't know. I mean, who wouldn't give up flying like a bird for the rest of his days."

"Tobias, I remember something about the other world. Hawks only live about twenty years, or something. I don't like the trade-off."

"That's another part. We don't know the full details of what happened back there. We could've been on a suicide mission that morning we came here. We could have been fighting a lost cause. Maybe we were the only members of that army left and the war already lost. Maybe, we just showed up a few minutes early for the matinee," I said. She was shocked, I guess. I had struck a chord with her.

"I'm really glad you're alive," she said. 

"Do you want to go back?" I asked.

"Of course, I do!" Her eyes went wide.

"Why?" I noticed she turned really red.

"Circumstances," she said. She looked away. She wasn't going to say anymore. I decided not to push her. 

About ten minutes later, mom came in with some clothes. 

**Elfangor **

I ran down the steps leading from the roof to the bedroom. I ran out the door and nearly ran down Loren.

"Their here!" I shouted.

"There here! Their here! Their here!" I screamed. What I would give to have my Andalite form again. Why did I give it up? I knew this day would come. I should have prepared. 

"Who's here?!" She asked. She grabbed my shoulders and planted me to where I stood.

I felt adrenaline rush through my body. Every muscle became stone. My eyes became small and darkened. My nostrils flared, and my lip quivered. I defiantly said, "**THEM**"

Her eyes went wide, and her grip on my arms loosened. She whispered, "What are we going to do?"

"I am going to see what they are up to. _They are not getting this planet!" _

"What are you going to do?" She asked.


	5. The Gate 5

**The Gate: Chapter 5**

A/N: You guys are going to _hate_ me. I know you are tired of this. (You'll see what I mean when Toby speaks first) **I _told_ myself I wasn't going to do this, but I had a good reason, believe me. *Jumps off a building***

**Cassandra**

Those two kids were wreaking havoc on this quaint little universe inside a universe. I could hear _him_ picking inside my all too inferior mind. _He_ was asking why I had let this happen. _He_ told me I should have closed the gate before they could reach it. 

I told him they would have died and that it hadn't been closed since the incident on the _Itaricterin_ planet. That is another story. It would take millennia to tell. _He_ told me it was my entire fault that a war had started in his universe. You see, the only wars that existed were the ones in the deceased memories. Things were growing tense between the master and his gamekeeper.

He put all the pressure on me to end this. I had been relieved of my celestial duties until I found a solution. I had been working round the clock to fix it. I hadn't found a way, and probably won't for a hundred years from now. Oh well, I needed a vacation.

Actually I did have a solution, but it wasn't pretty. The only solution I could think of was to _kill them._ I didn't know how to do that without causing more pain, which was what I was trying to eliminate. I was thinking that I could have them kidnapped. I guess I could rewrite memories of everybody who knew them, and kill them some quiet way. But that takes a lot of work. It would take forever to write the alternate scenarios for the some thousand people they have affected.

Suddenly, I collapsed. I can't say what I collapsed onto because there is nothing I stand on. 

**_DO IT!!!!!!!!!! _**He told me. 

I started at once on those alternate scenarios.

**Elfangor**

I stumbled out to the car. The ship had landed just outside the city. It took me an hour to find my way and another to find the landing site. I parked the car on some country road and walked about a mile towards a farm. 

I saw a barn. As I got closer, I could hear voices.

"Did I say you could have a break? Get back to work, slug!"

I also heard machinery roaring. I walked another half mile so I could see what was going on. In the dark I could have been mistaken, but I swear I saw a pool ship. Of course, I had to be hallucinating. I was hallucinating from the beginning. I couldn't fight them. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't fight anymore. What was I doing?

I ran back to the car and ran into a man. Without thinking I punched him, and ran. In five minutes I made it to the car, and jumped in. I took off at 100 mph. What was I thinking?! I needed to go home and make a battle plan, develop weapons, and tactics. 

Just beyond the city, I saw it. It was going towards the spot I had just come from.

**Tobias**

Somehow I got to my room. It took forever, having two women pulling on the wheelchair. . . Rachel was sitting on my bed crying. I knew enough to know that this wasn't her. In the old world, she never opened up, but now she was crying all the time and saying she loved me all the time. That was all good but it just didn't fit her. 

There were several things I noticed: first is that the guy who shot me knew her, and second that she had gained weight. I remembered when my mom started gaining weight, and it wasn't good. 

I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but we had gone into one of our silent moods. Really, I was thinking about Dad. Mom wouldn't say where he had gone. I figured he went to the hospital, but he should've been back by now. 

What the heck, ask her.

"Rachel, what is wrong with you?"

"I can't tell you."

"So you admit that something is wrong. You're not going to get away with anything this time."

She stiffened up, and took a couple of deep breaths and said, "First, Jason, the guy who shot-, he was my boyfriend until the night I came to this universe."

"The jealous type?" I whispered. I didn't mean for her to hear that.

"Don't." She started to cry again. I put my good foot on the floor, and picked myself up. I swung myself around to sit on the bed. The other leg didn't like that move very much. I'll live. I took her hands in mine and looked deep into her eyes.

I asked her, "What happened the night before you came here?" 

"He raped me." 

"And then what?" I asked, half crying myself.

"The next morning, I started puking on everything and I went to the doctor and he told me that I - was - pregnant." 

"With his kid?!" I nearly screamed. I slapped myself, covering my face.

"You hate me don't you?" 

I stopped and said, "No, uh, no, I love you very much. I couldn't dump someone who has been through hell and back."

Our faces lingered very close to each other. I knew what was going to happen tonight. There was no stopping us. She leaned back and I leaned forward. . . (What do you know; the Sex Ed. teacher was right.) 

It was 3:30. I awoke with a jolt of fear. I sat up straight in my bed. It took me a few minutes to realize I didn't have any clothes on. Now, my heart really started to race. I had memories of just a few hours ago. Soon, I relaxed and couldn't help but smile. I looked at her and pretty soon I was back asleep.

**Elfangor**

I sped home as fast as I could. The adrenaline was pumping so fast a tiny jerk of my hand nearly sent me off the road. In an hour and a half I was home. Immediately, I ran down to the basement where I worked on my new computer designs.

There was a long drafting table in the center. I ran to it and threw all the designs on the floor and got out some blank paper. 

I heard footsteps and got out the gun that was in a drawer. I turned around and saw that it was Loren. She started to scream. I dropped the gun. I sighed when it didn't go off. 

"What's going on?"

"They're here. I saw them. They're trying to build a pool outside the city."

"What are you going to do?"

"First, I think it's time we tell Tobias about me." She started to speak but I silenced her. "I can't keep carrying on like I have been. He needs to know why I go up to the roof every night, he needs to know where I was, and finally he needs to know before he gets too involved with Rachel."

"First thing in the morning?"

"Yeah, um, I don't think I'll be coming to bed tonight."

She sighed. "Okay."

I spent the night working on weapon designs, plans and tactics. It wasn't unheard of to single-handedly take on a fleet. I mean their advantage was low considering they were new to the planet, and that there were only two ships that had landed. 

I spent half the night working on a crude morphing device, and the rest rehearsing what I was going to tell Tobias. Strange, the morphing was simple enough, but telling Tobias that I was the stuff of science fiction? I didn't see how he would believe me. There was the chance that he could morph. I ran through the numbers in my head a thousand times. Becoming a nothlit could graft the giga-bots into my DNA, so Tobias would be born with it. I sighed; we didn't have any animals around. 

I looked to the clock high on the wall. It was 6:30. Maybe a pet shop was open. I ran upstairs and hopped in the car. I went to every shop in the city. The last one was open. I picked out a golden retriever. It was small and sickly but it would do.

It was 8:30 and I was dead on my feet. I stumbled into the kitchen and saw Loren sitting with Tobias.

"I told him you have something to say to him." She got up and casually whispered in my ear, "I think something happened last night. They came down all googly eyed, and super glued."

I sat down at the table and stared into his eyes. I swear there was some hint of Andalite in there. 

"So, did you get me a dog?"

"Uh, sort of." I yawned. "Tobias, touch the dog."

"What?"

"You're going to have to listen to me, okay. So, touch the dog." He did. "Okay, now concentrate on the animal." He closed his eyes. "Now picture yourself turning into the animal."

"Okay, I don't know what kind of joke this is but it's not funny."

"Tobias! Do as I say." 

He did. Slowly, he started to take on the shape of the dog. It took all the self-control I could muster to keep from shouting, but finally he morphed!

Okay, that's great, really great. Now see if you can speak telepathically. All you have to do to form a sentence in your mind and aim it at me while sort of saying it to yourself. It has been awhile since I used that method of communication. I only hoped it didn't come out in Andalite or something.

Dad, how the hell do I get out of this?!

I laughed. I wasn't tired anymore. Okay, no need for rudeness. Just concentrate on your normal shape and eventually you will change back. 

A few minutes later he was back to normal. Even his leg was healed. This was expected, but exciting. He walked around a bit to test his leg. 

"How did that happen?!"

"Well, I wasn't always a human. I used to be an Andalite. They live on the other side of the galaxy. . .

**Tobias**

As he was explaining all this to me, I remembered the lawyer reading his letter to me, and thinking he should be here to read this to me himself. I remember leaving that office with my adrenaline on super, not only because there was a murderous alien sitting next to me, but also because I was angry. I was angry that my father's murderer was sitting there and didn't kill me, but could. I was angry that I saw him kill my father and couldn't do anything. I was angry with the Elimist for making my friends and I do this, knowing very well we couldn't win. Hell, I was angry at the whole damn world! 

I sat there and smiled. There were a few tears in my eyes but they didn't show themselves. It was nice to have my very own father tell me the truth.

His whole story took an hour. I stood up and hugged my Dad. 

"Thank You," I said. "But there's something I got to tell you too."

"What?"

"You're dead. You died." Some more tears started to come, "I watched you die at Visser One's hand. I still don't know the whole of it, but this world is where people go when they die. Where I come from my life is a mess. All I knew for years was my aunt and uncle who would have left me out on the street if they were allowed too. Even I tried to run away a few times but the police or somebody would always take me back screaming. 

In school; I went to public school; I wasn't the most popular. In fact, every day I had my hair washed in toilet water. I probably lost two hundred dollars a year in that school from bullies. Every once in a great while somebody tried to take an interest, but no friends came out of it. Sometimes, I latched on to people hoping they would include me. That's how I got into this whole mess of trouble. . ." I went on to explain the whole thing including how I got here.

My Dad started to cry. He wasn't one to hold anything in. 

"So, what's my brother like?"

"He's funny, after a year, he still doesn't understand what human culture is. And he's a little biased against humans."

He laughed, "They taught him well. Have any other Andalites come?"

"They don't care, Dad. Like the Taxxon planet, they left us to die. They even tried to kill us, but we stopped them. It's weird, it seems we have to stop two invaders at once, the Andalites and the Yeerks; and you know what, the outcome doesn't look good." 

"I can't believe it. What I saw last night. I got so scared. My fear must have been a pinprick to yours that you face everyday. It's one thing to have advanced aliens to worry about, but ordinary birds and animals. I'm sorry I put that on you and your friends."

**Cassandra**

One little word and I was done.  End.  I scratched out that little word and I was finished.  Yes, I wrote the whole thing by hand.  I guess it shouldn't have hurt.  I was a highly advanced being.  Technically, I wasn't alive at all.  So, I shouldn't feel pain right?  Maybe, it was a punishment by _him._

I bet Cassie was feeling the pain right about now. I could make her feel the pain if I wanted her too. But sometimes it just happened, my emotions passed from me to her. Maybe, that's why she's such a philanthropist, she feels things she can't explain and has to act on them.

 A few minutes after I finished, I received some startling news. Rach and Toby had gone _all the way._ Well, more like _way too far. _Without knowing it they had just vouched for her child's life. In a sense, the child she was carrying wasn't real. If they had left each other alone, Rach would have left this world without a single stretch mark, but now! They had brought life to that child, and it would be biologically Toby's. There was nothing I could do to change that. I guess it was okay, I mean we haven't lost a soul yet, and we're not going to start with a fetus. 

I sighed; they would have to live with the consequence of their actions in the real world. I, well, I would go on with my miserable existence making every detail perfect for _him_. 

I caught a glimpse of the real world. The Animorphs weren't doing so hot. I had to send them back soon. This completely turned my plans around. I wanted to change the past first. Urgh, the blasted kids.

**Rachel**

I left the kitchen with Loren. She told me he wasn't in any trouble. I didn't believe it. I wonder if they knew about last night. They couldn't, I told myself. That would be most embarrassing. I sat down in the living room and tried to watch TV, but I couldn't. I had this strange sensation very low in my back. 

I went upstairs to the bathroom and took some Aleve. I walked around upstairs for about half an hour. The pain wasn't going away. I decided to lie down in my room. It was 9:15. At 10:15, I woke up and everything was burning and the pain was unbelievable. Carefully, I turned around on the bed, and tried to sit up. Let's just say, I couldn't.

"Tobias! Somebody!" I yelled. Tobias must have been right outside the door, because he was there in two seconds. 

"What's wrong?!" 

"I think something's wrong with the kid!"

"Oh, uh, I'll call the –." He dialed 911 from his room. Soon, we heard sirens coming up the drive. Tobias ran out front and directed them to me. In the corner of my eye, I saw the paramedics, but before I could say anything I fainted.

I was unconscious and floating around in my mind. I saw a bright light, and a sort of tunnel. Walking up to it, I saw Cassandra.

"Hurry, we don't have much time!" She yelled. She grabbed my arm and pushed me through the tunnel. It was a shocking experience. It was _very_ cold, and suddenly I was in a different world. It was weird how I could tell. I don't know, but it felt _real_. In the distance, I could hear Cassandra yelling, "Don't morph!" She might have said something else but she was cut off. 

I don't know where I was. I could barely open my eyes, because they were frozen shut. I was on the ground _somewhere. _I lay there about an hour and fell asleep. I woke when someone said, Rachel? 

I looked over and saw a blue hand with way too many fingers. I had never seen Ax from this angle before, _and I think understood something_. I jumped up and hugged him. It was so good to see him. 

What happened to you? The others are very upset. The authorities have already given up their search for you. 

"I'm fine. A little shaken but fine."

Good. Why was there ice on you? It is 64.524 degrees in the forest. 

"May be you should wait. It's a long story. Is Tobias somewhere around here? Did he come with me?" 

I am sorry. I have not seen him since you disappeared. It was theorized that another animal attacked him. 

"No, he was with me! He was right there with me!" I screamed. Great. He's there, and I'm here. I suppose that it was a near death thing that sent me back.

**Tobias**

I saw the paramedics in slow-mo. First, they put her on the heart monitor. Then, they put on, what I guess, was a fetal monitor. It was beeping in the normal rhythm for a few minutes. They checked her vitals. They started an IV in her arm. It was routine.

Then the monitors started screaming. I saw one guy start out the pads. He placed them on her chest and I saw her body leap. The guy shook his head, and tried it again. They did this for several minutes. Then one guy shook his head and looked at his watch and wrote down the time. 

"No, nononono!" I screamed. 

A paramedic grabbed me and said, "I'm sorry man, she gone." I wrenched free of the guy and sat in the corner of our room like a little child who is put in time out. I screamed the rest of the day.

That night, I went to the roof. I saw Dad's telescope sitting there. I walked over to it, and peeked through it. I was amazed. I could see for millions of miles with this thing. For some reason, I was hoping I could see some edge to this fake universe, but it looked normal enough. I wanted to scream again. They took her. Looking through it, I saw planets I never knew existed. Dad probably fixed it so he could see his own planet from here. I bet the people on his planet were looking at us right now.

I turned around and saw Dad standing there. He scared me to death. I was trying real hard to explain myself, but it came out in mumblings. 

"That's alright. I figure if something is going to take you back to where you came from, I should tell you something."

"What is that?"

"Well, I had a will made up when the company started to grow, when Mom was pregnant with you. It stated that in case of my death, or in case I suddenly disappeared and could not be found, that the company would be left to _you._ I had it made so that in case this happened you would be the sole owner and wouldn't have to wait until you were eighteen. Now, I'm not promising anything because I didn't exist there, but maybe _someone_ had some mercy on you. I can't believe Bill runs _my _company." He paused for a moment. "You going to be okay? That was rough. I guess we got lucky with your Mom. Hey, wait a minute! Maybe she was sent back to the "real world", do you think?"

"I don't know, all I know is she died and she's not here. I keep thinking it's my fault because last night –." I shut my mouth really fast. 

"No, that's not it. You know it had nothing to do with you, and I know what happened last night with you and Rachel. Your Mom saw how you two looked this morning. We kind of figured what had gone on in your room."

"You're not mad?"

"Let me answer that with another question. Would you have not done it if you knew what was going to happen? Look, I know you're tired. Why don't you go back down to bed? I love you, Tobias."

"I love you too, Dad. Elfangor – Sirinial – Shamtul."

Yes, it was nice to have parents, especially a Dad. My Dad was the coolest Dad there was. He saved thousands of lives from the slugs. He been to all the planets I can see in this telescope. He met mom in a spaceship. They saved each other's lives multiple times. That certainly had to top the charts.

I walked over to the edge of the roof. I stood on the ledge, and looked over. On top of the house, there was a pretty good view of the city from the north. In the distance, I could see the Microsoft building. I felt a little wind coming across my shoulder, but didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later, the wind became pretty strong. I was struggling to keep on the edge. You would think I would have stepped off already, but I was glued.

Then, suddenly, I fainted. I was unconscious and falling to my death. In my mind I saw a bright light. Walking towards it, I saw Cassandra. She grabbed me, and yelled, "It's yours!" with a sort of beguiling laugh. I don't know what she meant. She pushed me through the light. I tried to stop her, because it was so cold, dark, and _evil_ past the light.

I woke up in a noisy place. I heard voices coaxing me to wake up. I couldn't open my eyes because they were frozen shut. I moved around a bit and wrenched my eyes open. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light, and I realized that I was in the mall. Not the mall in my hometown, but the largest mall in Seattle. I stood up and looked around. The crowd now thought I was some sort of super being who could appear anywhere he wanted too. 

I looked around. I just knew I was in the real world. I could feel it. I felt like I had never been here before, but in fact I had been to school with some of the kids who were mystified by my appearance right now. Without thinking I ran out of the building. Outside, I heard an ambulance screaming toward the parking lot. I ran the other way, and found a safe place to morph. 

The morph took forever, but I was _so _happy to be in my hawk body again. I found the best thermal I could and took off. I flew around forever; it took me a few minutes to realize that I wasn't in New York. I flew around looking for Rachel. I realized that was stupid, she died didn't she?

The more I thought about it, I couldn't have possibly have survived the fall off the roof of a mansion. I looked around a while, but didn't see her. I began to get worried.

Soon, I came close to the Microsoft building. I realized what had happened. I was sent here to claim what was rightfully mine. I landed on the roof of the building and thought about how I would go about this. I could go in as a fly and find a computer that doesn't look like its being used and hack in. I knew I could do this with my newfound computer knowledge. 

So I flew towards the ground and tried to hide and morph. In back of the building I saw some garbage cans. I hid behind those and morphed. After a while, I floated up through an open window.

I looked around for an open desk, well hidden. I couldn't find one. I flew around a little bit until I found a guy who looked dead drunk. I decided to put a quick change in my plans. I could talk to the guy and he probably wouldn't remember anything after he had slept it off. 

Hello. I said. 

He looked around and said, "What was that?" His co-workers laughed at him. Apparently this wasn't unusual. No doubt some of them were controllers. 

I need you to do something for me. Now don't say anything, just do what I tell you and you'll live to see tomorrow. Right then, he sat bolt upright. Okay, I need you to look through some of the old company files; mainly for a will. 

After a lot of typing and reading, he came to a search engine. I told him to look for Alan Fangor. All we got was a series of numbers and letters that spanned one line of the screen. I saw his eyes widen, and his fingers and arms grow limp. 

What is it? I asked.

"Th – th – that's in the basement."

Explain. 

"Some files weren't put in the company databases because of the fear that somebody would swipe them off our hard drives."

Can you find it? 

"M – m – maybe."

Do it. I'll go with you. 

We headed to the basement. It was a dark damp place that hadn't been seen since the start of the company. There were hundreds of filing cabinets. The file we were looking for was,

Z-285-TYWO-3-O-295847546-TYOUNV-3955-T8746YRO239-T748UOP30-TU9496. My messenger went to the very back. There must have been 150 cabinets of files that started with Z. 

After an hour, we had no luck. We must have searched through forty cabinets. Then my messenger pulled one out at random and there it was. The numbers matched exactly. I told him to set it down on the ground and go back to his office and never tell anyone. 

When I was sure he was gone. I turned to human. I went by the one window in the basement, and read.

In typewritten letters, it said, 

"This is the last will and testament of Alan Fangor. Upon my death or sudden disappearance, in which I cannot be found; my company will be left to my son, Tobias." It went on to address some legalities, but it basically said that Microsoft was mine.


	6. The Gate 6

**Epilogue **

**Tobias**

**November 25, 2086**

Today is my one-hundredth birthday, and I celebrate alone. Sure, I have family and friends with me. But I celebrate alone, because the only one who really mattered is here no longer. Oh don't worry, I know where she is, and soon I will be with her for I have taken too many of my pills. . .

A/N: I told you I had a good reason. Please don't tell me they're too young because they're not. I had to use something. Next, if you really hated the ending, or any other part of the story, and if you can convince me that it were truly horrible. I might be able to revise.

In memory of Rachel – "May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay." Psalm 35:4 NIV


	7. The Monopoly

The Monopoly

A/N: Just so you know, I know nothing about Bill Gates personality.  I am just using his name for my purposes.  Is that legal?  Oh Crap! *Runs away from FBI with evil grin on my face.* Also, all names, aside from Bill Gates, are fictional.  I know nothing about Seattle.  ****

**Rachel**

After a few minutes of shaking the ice off of me, I was still kind of sleepy.  I remember fainting and seeing Cassandra.  She pushed me through something.  It was a circle of light, cold light.  It reminded me of light reflecting off of a frozen lake.  It didn't provide any warmth but you could see by it.  Cassandra looked different too, I remember.  When I first saw her, I thought I could trust her.  However, as she shoved me through back to this side, I saw an evil grin.  It was as if she was glad I was leaving!

Rachel, the others are at Jake=s home.  Perhaps we should morph, and fly over there.

ANO!@ I said, not exactly sure why.  I put my hands to my face trying to think why I shouldn't morph.  Meanwhile, Ax was staring at me.

ANo, I don=t want to morph.  I'll walk.  It=s only a mile, but you can fly if you want@  I smiled, trying to show fake enthusiasm.  Ax smiled= and went his separate way.

Slowly, I got up.  Taking a few steps at a time I made my way out of the forest.  I was kind of surprised to see it all remained the same.  However, I observed that there was a trailer park to the southeast.  It had always been there I supposed.  Yes, indeed it had.  My vanity didn't want to see it before, but it was there.  I remembered living there for a short while, but I shrugged off the whole emotional response that tried to come.  I looked to the northwest where Jake and I lived and were _supposed_ to live.  I took a few deep breaths and made my way to Jake=s house.

I tried to keep in the shadows.  I had been missing for months, and I didn't want the attention.  I made it to the city and used alleyways and back yards.  One block from Jake=s house and I had to puke.  I felt really warm.  Suddenly, I kind of winced, because I heard footsteps behind me.

ARachel!?@  Oh, Lord, it was Cassie.  But I looked up and saw the familiar jeans that barely reached the socks and a plaid shirt.  I just about fainted.  I looked at her and saw my best friend and not some wannabe god.  I was so happy, believe it or not, that I started crying.  I was so hot, I couldn't stand up.  

I slid down the side of the trash can I had just puked in.  Cassie ran up to me and gave me a hug.  (Albeit a very big one, I thought I heard a couple of ribs cracking.)  Cassie spat out the common courtesies such as how are you=, where you been=.  A few seconds later she became angry.

AI was this close to killing myself@ she said, holding her index finger and thumb a half inch apart.

AOh god, It=s really you!@, was all I could mutter.

I stood up and held on to Cassie for support.  Somehow, I made it to the back door and walked in.  Suddenly, I heard gasps and shouts as people ran toward me.  Jake, Cassie, Marco, and Ax crowded around me asking questions.  Jake was being serious, Cassie was holding my hand, Marco listened intently, and Ax was distant.  Apparently, Jake didn't like the fact that I had walked over here by myself.  I was feeling better about being home.  This was stuff I knew and had lived with.

Cassie said, "I found her nearly passed out about a block from here!"

All the words I could muster were, "I gotta go lay down.@  I found a couch.  A few seconds later Cassie came in with a hot and cold washrag.

AThe hot one is to wipe down with, and the cold one is to put against your forehead.@  She said.

The others were at the other side of the room.  They were yelling at Ax for letting me alone.  How cute.  After a few minutes of that, the topic of conversation came around to me.  

Obviously, their first question was, AWhere have you been for the past week!@  I nearly exploded.

AThe past week!  Try the last four months!  Lord, don't tell me all this crap happened in a week!"  

I raised my voice, let's leave it at that.  They looked shock and were muttering, "Four months, geez!"  

"Hey, guys.  It's all very complicated.  I'm sure Tobias will come back any minute, well, because I did.  As for an explanation to whomever, let's just say I was walking in the woods and got lost.  I am not in the mood for complicated stories.  I'll talk to Cassie because I think she will understand better about some of the events that happened wherever I went.  No ands, ifs, or buts about it!  Do something for the next few hours…"

Jake responded, "Um, okay."

Jake, Marco, and Ax spent the next few minutes deciding what to do and finally left.  I was SO glad.  I had so much to tell Cassie.  However, I thought I would leave out the part about her being a super being.

I told her the major stuff first.  She had to wonder why I looked so stressed.  I told her about being raped and becoming pregnant by an abusive boyfriend.  I told her about being hooked on cigarettes.  I told her how I was poor, I didn't have any friends, and I wasn't popular.  I told her I was scared of everything.  She asked me where this place was, and I said it was the afterlife.  She was in tears.  However, I hadn't gotten to the good part yet.

I eventually got to the part about Seattle and her tears started to dry.  I told her about getting on a train and leaving, how I met up with Elfangor and Loren.  My baby and I were being taken care of.  She shuddered when I mentioned "my baby".  However, she was excited when I mentioned living with Elfangor.  She has missed him every day since that fateful night.  I think that if he could have stuck around he could have given us some guidance.

She gave me look while I was talking about Elfangor.  She said, "So, you and Tobias lived together…"

"Yeah."

She laughed a little, "Rachel, I know you like him.  You like him like I like Jake.  However, you were living together.  I'm just curious.  Did anything _happen_ when you were together?"

Yes, I caught the emphasis on "happen".  I told her that Elfangor and Loren were very perceptive people.  She replied with an, "Oh, god."  She did that nervous walk that people do when they just found out WAY too much information.  I think you know how perceptive she is.

She paced about the room saying, "Oh my god, you're officially not a virgin anymore.  What about that thing at school that we did?  We filled out little cards vowing we would remain abstinent until marriage."

I said, "Yeah, I know, but it just happened.  I had told him I was pregnant.  He had just got shot.  We were just like, "oh, I love you.  I didn't tell him this, but while he was in the hospital a doctor handed me a little box that he had found in Tobias's pocket.  There was a diamond ring in it, Cassie.  It was real, and it was huge."

Just then, I felt a tickling on my leg.  I reached down in my pocket and found the ring!  I remember that I had gotten up that morning and put in my pocket.  I was surprise him with it.  I was do a "hey, remember this!" routine.  I never got the chance.

"Oh my god, Cassie, look!"  I showed her the ring.

She knelt beside me.  With the most shocked look in her eye, she said, "Rachel, where did you get those clothes?"

"I got them at a little boutique on 51st and Marlin.  Why?"

"Well, first, there is no Marlin street in this town.  Second, your Mom won't let you shop at boutiques because they are expensive.  You got these clothes in Seattle, didn't you, along with that ring?" Cassie whispered

"Oh no, you're right."

"Another thing, you looked like you've gained a little weight."

"You don't think. . ."

"Well, you got to keep all the other expensive stuff."

"Cassie, don't make anymore sarcastic remarks.  Please.  And Cassie, the others are on a 'need to know' basis, okay.  I might not be pregnant, you know."

Oh, Lord.  I am still four months pregnant.  I HATED being pregnant.  At first, I was nauseous.  Then, I had to pee all the time.  All the time, there were hormones.  I had mood swings.  Emotions that nobody ever saw would come flooding out.  I can just imagine how Marco would take it.  I can hear "Birdman and Robin" right now.  Well, if he makes one wise-crack, I'll shove it right back up his you-know-what where he got it from.

I drifted off to sleep with thought, _Hey, Robin sounds like a good name..._

**Tobias**

I stared at the folder.  Fear and Anger rushed through my veins.  My life is freakin= Cinderella.  I had an evil family and after a little conflict, I get rewarded richly.  Angst aside, I had to figure out a way to prove this.  My birth certificate wouldn't be any help. DNA tests would be pointless.  Oh well, I'll figure it out someway.

I took the folder and simply walked out the building.  I walked and walked about five hours (with a few bathroom breaks= here and there) when I found a wooded area.  It was just up ahead.  It was closed off by a little stream with large, sharp rocks in it and a steep hill on the other side of it.  Hopefully, some nosy little kid wouldn't decide to cross it, and I could have some privacy.

I made my way across and into the wood.  I sat and read some of the legal jargon in my father=s will.  A few minutes of that made me exhausted, so I demorphed and found a nice branch to light my feet on.  Somehow, I managed to get the folder up there and wedge it in a safe place.  Soon, I was sleeping like a little hawkling.  

It didn't last long though, two hours tops.  Hawk sleep never lasts long. If I were human, I would be tossing and turning.  I had to secure Microsoft!  I had no idea how.  What if Bill was a controller?  The dickhead probably fell for the whole lame-ass scheme of trying to take over the world.  All I could conclude was that there was no way I could contact the others and I probably wouldn't make it home for some time.  So, I had to do this myself.

Now let=s see, I am not a lawyer, so court battle is out.  I don=t have any document proving that I am the son of Fangor.  The best thing I could come up with was, scare tactics.

The next morning I woke up and went out for a hunt, a mouse here and there and I was filled.  Then, I took off for the Microsoft building.  I had to flap like crazy because of the strong gusts of ocean air.  When I got there, I tried to find Bill Gates office by looking at the windows.  No luck.  I went through every floor, and every side of the building, but found nothing.  So I decided to try Mr.-drunk-half-insane-guy (the guy that got my father=s will for me) to tell me where I could find his boss.

I turned into a fly and entered the building.  I found him in his rightful place, sitting at his cubicle, half-asleep.

Hey.

He jumped up, and looked around.  He made some gurgling noises because he wasn't fully conscious.

Don't bother looking for me.  Just listen.  Where is Bill Gates?

"Um, I don't know.  He works at home a lot.  He comes here for planning meetings and such but that's only once a week or so."

Okay, where does he live?

"He lives somewhere on the coastline. It's the only three story mansion in the neighborhood.  He he."  He was obviously remembering fond memories.

Oh, Lord…

"Hey, no need for swearing!"  He chuckled and went back to work.

I know where that house is.  Damn it!  He had stolen my house too.  I hate this guy.  Oh, well, I knew how to scare him.  I found an exit, and then found an alleyway with a trash bin.  I landed behind the dumpster.  I concentrated on my hawk form and, eventually, I was a hawk again.  I, then, decided to go human.  I don't know why, I just did.  It's not like Jake would ever find out.

A/N:  To Bill Gates, if he should read this.  J  I have only heard nice things about you.  I have heard that you are a great husband and father.  I am so serious.


End file.
